Prison stuff. In prison movies.
Maybe this isn’t a real prison movie, either. But it’s one for which Susan Sarandon won an Oscar for her portrayal of the dedicated Sister Helen Prejean, who in real life was a Roman Catholic nun who served as spiritual adviser to a killer on Death Row at Louisiana’s Angola State Prison. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:56 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
This purports to be the true story of Gerry Conlon and the Guildford Four. The Belfast-born Conlon and three others, suspected by Police of being a crack IRA death squad, were convicted of the 1974 Guildford pub bombings, and his father, aunt and other members of her family were convicted of bomb-making. They were arrested just a couple of days after the British Police won new anti-terrorist laws that allowed them to hold terrorism suspects for seven days without charge, and Conlon claimed that Police used that time to beat confessions out of him and his co-accused, with whom he lived briefly in a London squat. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:53 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
Based on a true story and starring Clint Eastwood as Frank Morris, the mastermind behind the notorious 1962 escape attempt, in which Morris and Clarence and John Anglin managed to escape the island, but no-one really knows if they made it to freedom or perished in the icy waters of San Francisco Bay. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:45 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
Having been very critical of Midnight Express for its xenophobic vilification of the locals, I was keen to see a slightly more trustworthy portrayal of the Turkish prison system. And the two films are different; while Midnight Express has not one prison guard who is neither corrupt nor brutal, Duvar has… one! (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:38 pm. Updated on April 28th, 2020 at 10:14 pm.
A made-for-TV account of the 1971 Attica riot, in which 39 people died – including 25 prisoners and nine guard hostages shot by the State troopers who stormed the prison and ended the four days of rioting. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:31 pm. Updated on August 25th, 2009 at 10:37 pm.
I grew up with Porridge (the TV series), and when I started working in prisons I thought it more accurately portrayed what life inside the walls was really like than the more dramatic images of prison on TV – which usually concentrated on the violence and brutality. It showed humour, it showed some mutual regard (and some mutual contempt) between prison officers and prisoners, and it showed good-hearted, bumbling staff working alongside officious, cynical ones. Not so many good officers, now that I come to think of it.
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:26 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
I can’t quite make up my mind about this one. I feel I should rate it highly, partly because of its brave treatment of the subject matter, and weirdly because it was nominated for an Academy Award (Best Foreign Film) in 1985, which could suggest (if not critical acclaim) merit of some type. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:14 pm. Updated on April 15th, 2012 at 1:26 pm.
Romantic comedy is not the most common genre within prison movies, but that’s what this is. It forms part of what has become a fine tradition in recent British prison movies (Captives, Borstal Boy, Greenfingers), playing out a fascination for well-heeled women falling for ‘a bit of rough’. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:05 pm. Updated on March 6th, 2016 at 8:58 pm.
More a Borstal film than a prison film, perhaps, but we’ll leave it in. The BBC commissioned a TV film on the British Borstal (juvenile justice) system in 1977, and then banned it, leading Director Alan Clarke to recreate it as a movie. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 1:00 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.
I’m not overly familiar with the horror genre, I must admit. Nor have I seen either of the two Re-animator prequels, the first of which seems to be universally regarded as the best of the three. But this, I expect, would be hard to beat as prison schlock, and you certainly don’t need to have seen the others to enjoy it. It’s in English, too, despite being made in Spain. (more…)
Posted on May 16th, 2009 at 12:54 pm. Updated on August 21st, 2009 at 6:45 pm.